Kansas State Schedule Preview, Sept. 13: K-State Faces Arizona In Friday Night Lights Battle
Friday Night Lights Kansas State style hits Manhattan 7 p.m., September 13 in a nonconference battle of preseason top 25 Wildcats. K-State versus Arizona will be televised on FOX new College Football Friday television package.
It doesn’t get much better than this for a nonconference game in the third week of the season.
The matchup against Arizona, a new member of the Big 12, is the first game of a previously scheduled nonconference series that was announced in 2016. It is the eighth meeting all-time between the two Wildcats but the first in Manhattan. The schools last met in 1978 in Tucson.
This is an important nonconference game for K-State, which has aspirations of being one of the top teams in the country. A game like this captures the attention of the college football world.
If college football fans haven’t heard of K-State sophomore quarterback Avery Johnson, that will surely change after this game.
Arizona returns veteran quarterback Noah Fifita. Last season Fifita threw for 2,869 yards, 25 touchdowns and only six interceptions.
Most likely, Arizona will have a slightly different look after last year’s coach Jedd Fisch left for Washington. Brent Brennan, who coached last season at San Jose State, takes over.
This game will give an early look at who might challenge for the Big 12 title without it counting as a conference game.
K-State enters the 2024 season with a current streak of three eight-plus win seasons, the only team in the Big 12 and one of only 11 Power 4 squads to claim that feat. They finished the 2023 campaign ranked No. 18 in the Associated Press Top 25, No. 19 in the AFCA Coaches Poll and No. 25 in the College Football Playoff Top 25 after registering a 9-4 record.
David Boyce is a contributing writer to K-State On SI. He can be reached at davidboyce95@gmail.com
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